The present invention relates to a card display unit and a method of manufacturing the card display unit and, more particularly, to a display unit and method of manufacture for displaying sheet materials and having channel members extending from a base point and converging at a contact point disposed between the base point and distal ends.
A display unit for sheet materials such as cards, notes, photos, and the like has both residential, office and other applications. In the home, for example, such a display unit can be used as an art piece supporting children's art, greeting cards, playing cards, recipes and/or pictures, etc. Conventional display units, however, typically utilize complex structural configurations, requiring a complicated manufacturing process, thereby increasing product costs of production. Such units are bulky, hence difficult for sellers and consumers to store. Moreover, the prior art products can be used in only one position, i.e., they typically sit on a table. These devices also lack the flexibility to display items of different sizes, shapes and configurations simultaneously such that they can be viewed in the correct position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,280 discloses a display unit having a central core member upon which a cord is wrapped in successive loops. The spines of greeting cards are inserted under individual strands of the cord for display. Unlike the current invention, this device has several limitations. First, it cannot display items that lack spines (such as photographs) since without a spine the device cannot hold the item. Second, this device is limited in that it can only display cards in one orientation, yet greeting cards come in vertical and horizontal orientations. Thus, some cards will not be displayed properly by this device. Third, the cylindrical display structure results in the cards obstructing each other such that the fronts of the cards cannot be seen without moving them. Fourth, the cylindrical display structure is bulky, requiring a large amount of horizontal space to use and store.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,526 discloses a similar greeting card display device which has similar limitations. U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,216 discloses another similar display device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,349 describes an apparatus for displaying a plural leafed greeting card. Two leaf supports are connected together at a desired display angle by a hinge. The leaf supports respectively receive each half of the greeting card and are transparent on one or both faces to allow display of one or both sides of the greeting cards. In contrast with the current invention, this device only displays one greeting card.
It is also known to utilize multi-channel clamp molding to bind plural sheets of paper and the like. Although the clamp molding structure is typically simple in construction and inexpensive to manufacture, conventional clamp molding is not suitable for use as a display unit. For example, one such molding is known having plural channels equally spaced around a central channel support member. In the known arrangement, the channels are not centered relative to the channel support member, which affects the channels' ability to retain the sheet materials, and the arms defining each channel do not define a contact point near their distal ends, thereby also affecting their ability to retain sheet materials as well as rendering it difficult to insert the documents in the channels. Other examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,555,606, 4,899,974 and 4,010,517. These devices, however, are not suitable for use as a display unit and/or are similarly of too complex construction and are thereby expensive to manufacture.